The Legislature further finds and declares all of the following:
(a) Hatchery production and stocking of California’s waters started over 140 years ago and is an enduring part of California’s history and attempts to steward its natural resources.
(b) Sustainable and adaptive management provides and improves recreational angling opportunities while protecting and maintaining native and wild trout fisheries, other species, and their mutual habitat.
(c) Management of the genetic diversity of California’s native trout species is imperative.
(d) Habitat restoration and the protection of cold water ecosystems are both of utmost importance to maintaining healthy wild trout populations, ensuring and promoting angler opportunities, and the sustainability of the inland trout fishery.
(e) The department shall seek to provide and enhance diverse recreational angling opportunities in California.
(Added by Stats. 2012, Ch. 565, Sec. 7. (SB 1148) Effective January 1, 2013.)